The government on Tuesday appointed Rajinder Khanna, former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), as the country’s Deputy National Security Adviser.

Khanna was serving as Officer on Special Duty (Neighbouring Studies) in the PM-headed National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), to which he was appointed in February last year on a one-year contract. The NSCS is the apex body on all internal and external security-related matters, where NSA Ajit Doval is the secretary.

The Cabinet’s Appointments Committee Tuesday cleared Khanna’s re-employment on contract basis, as per an order issued by the Personnel Ministry.

Considered an expert in counter-terrorism, Khanna was appointed R&AW chief in December 2014 for a fixed two-year term and was succeeded by Anil Dasmana. Khanna joined R&AW in 1978 and was the first chief of the agency to be directly recruited into the Research and Analysis Service cadre.